Just a random pizza tip that I learned from my job even though we have nothing to do with pizza. A dusting of semolina, basically cracked durum flour, under the crust helps keep it from sticking and the semolina has a much higher burn point than flour or cornmeal so you are less apt to get burnt flavor. We make roughly 1,000,000 pounds of semolina a day at work for pasta.
Skier76 that pie looks delicious. I love me some new haven pizza. The clam pie from pepes is unreal, I can still taste it and it’s been 10 years since I’ve been. My neighbor has a ooni, haven’t had a chance to see him use it yet. I have one of the blackstone patio ovens that they briefly made before they went full on into the griddle game. It’s the biggest piece of crap that cooks the best pies. I can get it up to around 850 degrees. Also cook NY style in my home oven with stones and more recently been experimenting with a pizza steel. I’m a absolute pizza nut. Any time you wanna talk pie, I’m there! Keep baking, looks good. Do you have a lot of experience or are you just starting out? Mushrooms and the blackstone oven shrimp and bacon. Sometimes add clams too margheritas NY style pepperoni, onion, fresh jalapeño
Dangnabbit! I knew I shouldn't have clicked on this threads alert...now I've gone from fine to hongry! Delicious looking pizzas g60gti!
Ummm...says in your profile you're from virginia. ..but you worked in Roaring Spring, Pa. That would be a long commute.... And somehow i knew I'd get a smartazz comment.
Glad I've up to your expectations! I was at Va Tech in foresty school and had one semester left before graduating in December. Hadn't worked any field related jobs the other summers, so figured I'd better try to find something forestry related. Saw a job posting for working with the procurement dept at Appleton papers and applied. Phone interview and was offered the job. Came up and found an apartment, cause yes that would have been a heck of a commute!
Basically, this one: Classic Pizza Dough I use an iOS app called PizzApp that’s a calculator to let you enter the size of the dough balls you want, number of dough balls and hydration ratio. I go with a 60% hydration with 00 flour. Very easy to work with.
So true! We dust the peel with semolina before putting the pizza dough on it prior to toppings. Works wonderfully as the Ooni is usually 750/800F when I launch. A little goes a long way.
g60gti Those pies look good! What are you using for a dough recipe? There’s a group on Facebook that focuses specifically on New Haven pizza. All About New Haven Pizza I believe is the name. The guys who run it have a YouTube channel The Pizza Gavones. One of them does a good step by step video with ingredients and cooking on a steel. I’ve been at this for about a year. Ordered the Ooni on Black Friday 2020 and it came in February of 2021. My wife and I have been doing weekly pizza nights since. Finally have things down with the dough, toppings and oven temp. It’s a learning process! based on your username, I’m going to guess you’ve had or have some VWs in the driveway!
I can't remember the name of the pizza "oven" I have, but it sits in top of a gas stove burner. I bought a stand alone propane burner to use it outside, instead of in the kitchen. Made pizzas a while back. In terms of the semolina, I definitely need to get some. I can tell you that at high temps, corn meal will eventually melt, bubble up and burn. The burn part didn't surprise me. The melty gooey bubbly part was a bit shocking.....
I use a couple different dough formulas. Caputo 00 for the high heat Neapolitan style, 65% HR. King Arthur AP for my NY style, 60% HR. Both are just flour, yeast, salt and water with a bit of oil in the NY style. I started experimenting with my own starter and room temperature fermentation but kind of got sidetracked, maybe this winter I’ll get back to it. Here’s a pic of a pie I did this summer. Fresh mozzarella, Roasted corn, fennel, red onions, swirl of heavy cream, S&P. Post bake, hot honey and fresh dill. It was a crowd favorite. I’ll have to check out that New Haven group. Not sure when I’ll ever get back there. I went twice when I was working in Dutchess county NY which was still a good drive but now I’m home permanently which is about 7 hours away. But man oh man was that some good pie. I have had many VW’s over the years, mk3 vr6 gti, mk3 Jetta, vr6 corrado, countless mk2 git’s that were brought home on trailers for parts. All those cars came and went but I had a ‘91 16v gti from ‘96 to 2013, that was my baby. Had a g60 16v in it and all sorts of other goodies, built it all myself except the engine. Definitely miss it but had other responsibilities at the time so it had to go. Guy who bought it is a VW tech I’ve known for a long time and he’s local so I get to see it and drive it once in a while. I’m sure he never will but said if he ever sold it I’d have first offer. I’ll see if I can find some pics, probably have some actual photos somewhere. All were toys, never had a daily driver VW. Toyota’s fill that task.
We'll be making a stromboli and a cast iron pan pizza over the holiday. I saw a great recipe in one of those cast iron magazines they sell at tractor supply.
